


Platonic VLD Week 2020

by Rangergirl3



Series: Platonic Week 2020 [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:49:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26591686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangergirl3/pseuds/Rangergirl3
Summary: Platonic Week is BEST week! :D :D
Relationships: Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt
Series: Platonic Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1934368
Comments: 75
Kudos: 89





	1. Literal Sleeping Together

**Author's Note:**

> Here are a few short things I wrote up at the end of September  
> For the event that /was/ in the beginning of August
> 
> But here you are <3

Keith was having nightmares again, but he refused to take medication to help him sleep.

“It doesn’t help me actually rest. It just makes me pass out for a couple of hours, but when I get up, I’m even more tired then before, _and_ I’m still out of it.”

Pidge sighed, somewhat resignedly.

“Keith, we’ve been through this. Sleep deprivation isn’t something to mess around with - ”

Keith shrugged, not meeting her eyes. His arms were crossed defensively over his chest.

“I’m not messing around with it. I just - don’t want to make a bad situation worse.”

Pidge thought for a moment.

“Oh.”

Keith remained silent, even as Pidge looked up at him with new understanding.

“Are you....um, afraid that you’ll be....unable to wake up from the nightmare?”

Keith closed his eyes for a second, swallowing hard. When he spoke, it was barely a whisper.

“Yeah.”

Pidge thought for a second.

“I have an idea.”

* * *

_Later that evening_

Keith looked at the couch, uncertain. Pidge stood beside him, in a set of long-sleeved pajamas that were a size too big for her.

“Pidge, are you sure about this?“

She waved a hand in a vague ‘yes’ gesture before tossing him a pillow. He caught it, still looking at the couch doubtfully.

“But - what if I - kick you, or push you off the couch, or something?”

Pidge took off her glassed and put them on a nearby side table, answering as she did so.

“I’ve literally lined the floor in front of the couch with pillows. Even if I fall off the couch, I’ll land on something soft. And, knowing me, I’ll just climb back up onto the couch and get right back to sleep."

She gestured with one hand, encouraging Keith to lie down first.

“Come on.We both need rest, and this way, we can be close to each other without it being, like, you know, awkward.”

* * *

Later, when Shiro looked in on them, he found them both sleeping peacefully.

Keith slepton his side, one arm beneath his head, the other draped over Pidge’s shoulders. She also slept on her side, but she had curled into a small ball and was hugging a pillow close to her chest as she slept. 

The back of her head rested against Keith’s chest , and a few stray strands of golden hair hid her face as she breathed softly and regularly in sleep.

Shiro retreated, but very quietly, so as not to wake them.

A few moments later, Keith shuddered in his sleep. Eyes still closed, he whimpered and began to shiver.

Still mostly asleep herself, Pidge sensed his distress. Reaching up, she found the arm he had draped over her shoulders.Sleepily, she hugged it closer to her, like a favorite teddy bear.

“ ‘s okay,” she muttered, snuggling a little closer. “ ‘m here. ‘R okay.”

Keith’s distress receeded.

In the morning, they both woke up well rested.


	2. Wings AU

“I can’t - I can’t make it.”

Shame washed over Matt even as he said it. Intellectually, he knew having a damaged wing wasn’t anything to be ashamed of, but...

They were escaping, or, trying to, and...

He was slowing the others down.

He wasn’t going to make it out of here, but they still might.

Pidge’s fists were clenched tight at her sides.

“No,” she snarled. “No, we’ll think of something.”

Lance nodded. “We can’t just leave you here.”

Hunk’s usually cheerful expression was a little paler than usual, given the amount of blood he’d already lost, but it was stubborn, too.

“We can carry you down the cliff,” Shiro began, but Matt cut him off.

“Just get out of here.” Matt couldn’t look back at Pidge when he said it. “Please, Shiro. Get them out - before -“

Howls sounded in the distance. The hunters were getting closer.

Shiro hesitated, glancing towards Pidge. She returned his look with a glare of her own, fury and desperation in her expression.

“I’m not leaving him,” she said. “ I _won’t_.”

Shiro opened his mouth to reply, but in that instant, another figure stumbled into the clearing.

* * *

Keith’s blade was out, and it dripped with a strange dark-purple ichor.

The Red Paladin stumbled to a halt next to Matt, breathing hard.

“They’re right behind us. We’ve got to move, now.”

Matt tried to smile, for his sister's sake, but his heart wasn’t in it. How could it be?

But she wasn’t looking at him anymore. Instead, she and Keith exchanged a single glance. Keith nodded to her, and it was only then that the others unfurled their wings and took off, gliding down and away from the cliff’s edge, towards the sea and safety.

Before Matt could figure out what Keith's plan was, Keith was at his side, pulling him towards the cliff in what could only be called a sprint.

“Come on!”

Matt tried to slow down, to wrench his arm away from Keith’s grip, but it was as strong as iron.

“Keith, what are you -"

Realization hit. Matt had just enough time to shout at the top of his lungs before they reached the cliff's edge.

"You’re _crazy_!” 

Instead of answering, Keith sheathed his blade in its scabbard and grabbed hold of Matt's collar.

As they jumped, Matt heard Keith shouting to him over the rushing wind.

“ _Just shut up and trust me_!”

They fell, and then -

Keith unfurled his own wings.

* * *

Later, after they had regained altitude and were racing to catch up with the others, Matt asked Keith how he had known they would make it.

Keith remained silent for a moment before answering.

“I...sort of...didn’t, but...I mean, it wasn’t like we had time for another plan -“

Matt sputtered in some consternation.

“But - Keith, how did - how did you even get your wings back?! I thought they - “

Memories of that awful room surge back. The screams, the cold white light, the smell of blood and burning. Matt forces back the urge to retch.

Matt’s wing had been broken, but Keith’s...

The scientists had burned Keith’s wings away, one feather at a time.

‘For betraying the Empire’ Haggar had claimed.

They’d clamped manacles around Keith’s neck, wrists, waist, and ankles,and then -

Matt tries and fails to forget the awful sight.

Haggar laughing.

The chains pulling taunt, yanking Keith onto his knees, then onto all fours, and then, finally, flat onto the ground.

Keith, struggling, screaming, crying.

There had been so much blood.

* * *

When Matt repeats his question,Keith’s eyes do not meet Matt’s own.

“I just - I had to try, you know? I couldn’t -“

Keith swallows hard before continuing.

“I couldn’t let those things get you. So...”

Matt is silent for a moment.

“You’re saying...you’re saying that you after you got out, you... _grew your own wings back_?”

Keith nods, still not looking directly back at Matt.

“Even though - what happened was - was supposed to - “

Keith finishes the question.

“Kill me? ....yeah...I guess so.”

Out of nowhere, a small smile flickers across Keith’s face.

“You know that movie....the one with the broken sword?”

Matt blinks, momentarily confused.

“Yeah?”

Keith’s smile is a little bit easier to see now.

“I always liked the line...how did it go...oh, yeah...”

In the near distance, the figures of their friends began to gain more shape, more color.

“It has been remade.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Return of the King reference, right there at the end. ;-)


	3. Crying in Front of the Other

Lance glared after Keith’s retreating figure, then noticed Hunk’s distressed expression.

“What?!”

Hunk twisted the dishtowel awkwardly, not sure what to do with his hands.

“It’s just - Lance, that wasn’t a very -“

Lance’s eyebrows drew together, and he crossed his arms in a huff.

“He started it!”

Hunk wrung the dishtowel distractedly.

“Lance, he just said he was going to the training deck. That’s not a reason to -“

Lance pouted, hunching his shoulders in a defensive position.

“He’s always going off to the training deck. Geez, what’s the problem of making a joke around here?!”

Hunk’s expression turned a shade harder.

“I don’t think Keith found what you said very funny.”

Lance’s lip curled slightly.

“Yeah, well, he should get a tougher skin.”

The Blue Paladin huffed again, slouching further down in his seat.

“I mean, we all know he had discipline issues back at the Garrison. What’s wrong with saying something like -“

“-something like what?”

Lance straightened automatically in his chair, turning towards Pidge, who had just entered the kitchen. Her golden-brown eyes were studying him more closely then he felt comfortable with.

“What did you say to him, Lance?”

Her voice was quiet, but there was steel in her gaze.

* * *

Lance’s eyes flickered over towards Hunk, but Hunk just looked disappointedly back towards him.

“You should answer her question, Lance.”

Hunk’s voice was not commanding, but Lance did as he was told, resignation in his voice.

“I said...'Wow, _Keith_ , you must really _hate_ being around people.”

For a moment, no one spoke. Pidge’s eyes did not leave Lance’s face.

“Hm.” she said. Then, without warning, she threw a half-eaten apple core at the Blue Paladin.

Lance squawked and flapped his arms, but the projectile just bounced off the side of the table, rolling under his chair.

The Blue Paladin shot up onto his feet, anger in every line of his body.

“Hey, what was that for?!” He shouted.

Pidge shrugged a shoulder, her eyes still harder and colder than usual.

“ _Wow_ , Lance,” she said, keeping her tone flat. “You must be _really_ skittish.”

Lance glowered back at her for a second before growling in confused frustration.

“I don’t -“

Pidge held up her right pointer finger.

“You thought it would be funny to _deliberately_ say something hurtful to Keith.”

She raised her middle finger.

“When he didn’t find your weak attempt at humor funny, you blamed him, instead of examining your actions and the reasons behind them.”

She raised her ring finger.

“Taking out your bad mood on another person is a _shitty_ thing to do.”

She held up her pinkie finger.

“So _stop_ _whining_ , and do what you should have done before I walked into this room.”

She raised her thumb.

“Get your head _out_ of your _ass_ , and find a way to apologize to Keith.”

Lance bristled, but before he could fire off another retort, Hunk nodded. At that, Lance’s shoulders slumped, and he reluctantly headed out of the room.

Pidge turned back to face Hunk.

“I know,” he said, not looking back at her. “I know.”

Pidge nodded, once. “Good.”

* * *

“Stupid _Keith_ ,” Lance muttered to himself. He kicked a crumpled piece of paper along the hallway. “Now I have to -“

Voices sounded from the lounge nearby.

“He didn’t mean it.”

That was Pidge.

“For all you know, he did.”

That was...Keith. He sounded tired.

Lance scowled. Great, now he had to go in there and ‘apologize’ for -

* * *

“Hey, hey, come ‘ere.”

Pidge again. Was she giving Keith a hug?

“I - just - “

Lance frowned. It sounded like Keith was...crying?

That couldn’t be right. Could it?

“It's - it's - just - too _loud_ sometimes - 'nd I - just - need some space, but - p-people - like Lance -"

Keith _was_ crying.

"- they don't - understand that - but I - d- _don't_ hate p-people - I _don't_ \- "

* * *

Lance’s heart sank.

Oh, man. He hadn't meant to hurt Keith.

But...he _had_ hurt Keith.

He'd been so wrapped up in his own problems that he hadn't stopped to think about what his words might do.

Lance swallowed, thinking hard.

Walking into the lounge right now wouldn't be the right thing to do.

He wanted to apologize to Keith, but he wanted to do it when Keith was less vulnerable.

Keith was crying, for God's sake. 

That was about as vulnerable as a person like him could get.

Carefully, Lance turned around, and, very quietly, retreated down the hall.

Maybe Hunk would have some paper, and know where to find a pen. A nice one, one that didn't leak ink all over the page.

Pidge's words back in the kitchen hadn't been polished, or pretty, but they'd been what Lance needed to hear.

He needed to apologize to Keith for what he'd said.

Lance wasn't perfect, but he was a good enough person to know when he'd dropped the ball.

He'd really hurt his teammate back there.

* * *

Hunk glanced up from making dinner to see Lance sit down at the table.

"Hey," Hunk said. Lance just nodded in acknowledgement.

"Um...Hunk?"

Hunk stood up, drying his hands on a clean dishtowel. 

"Yeah, Lance?"

Lance put his elbows on the table and covered his face with his hands.

"...um...got any humble pie?"

Between his fingers, Lance saw the glimmer of a smile cross Hunk's face.

"Yeah, pretty sure."


	4. Meeting the Family

Keith tugged at the collar of his jacket.

“Pidge, I don’t think this is a good idea.”

At his side, Katie Holt reached up to readjust her glasses before remembering that she wasn’t wearing them right now.

Instead, she was dressed in....well, a dress. Which felt weird, but, it was a formal party, and she’d felt like looking a little bit special that day, because it had been awhile since she’d worn anything other than sneakers, jeans, and a tshirt.

In answer to Keith’s question, Pidge took hold of his left arm.

“Hey, it’s no big deal. We go in, we make small talk -“

Keith turned towards her and raised a skeptical eyebrow.

Pidge went on, not missing a beat.

“-yeah, okay, I just heard that out loud, that is to say, _I_ will make small talk, _we_ will walk around for an hour, together, and then we go right back to Garrison and introvert for four hours straight to recover.”

Keith’s smile was there and gone in an instant, but she saw it nonetheless.

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

She patted his arm reassuringly.

“I got you, buddy.”

* * *

Almost twenty minutes into the party, Pidge spotted her parents arriving. She immediately tugged on Keith’s hand, planning to go over and introduce him properly.

“I mean, sure, we got back to Earth like, a _week_ ago, but you’re like, one of my best friends, so -“

Pidge went on, and Keith didn’t have the heart to interject.

When the two of them reached Samuel and Colleen Holt, Pidge immediately threw her arms around both her parents in a giant, enthusiastic hug. It didn’t last very long, but even so, it felt something like an eternity to Keith.

Sometimes, when he saw happy families smiling and laughing together, his heart would ache. Not just emotionally, but physically, too.It didn’t always happen immediately. Sometimes it would be hours or even days before he felt the pain in his chest, but he never spoke of it to anyone.

He figured it was because he had never known his own mother. Or maybe it was because his father had been dead for years. Either way, it wasn’t something that could be ‘fixed’, or ‘made right’, or any other well-meaning words for ‘made-not-to-be-broken.’

The few extended family members he did have back on Earth were...not people you would want to meet. _Ever_.

In that moment, Keith both wished that Pidge could meet the family he could never have, while also being genuinely thankful that she would never, _ever_ meet the only blood relations he had left.

Keith inhaled for a count of four, held the breath in another count of four, let the breath out slowly, and unclenched his jaw.

He didn’t want to appear belligerent in front of Katie’s parents.

When Pidge introduced her mother, Keith did his best not to flinch when Colleen Holt extended a hand towards him.

“Keith, thank you for all you’ve done for Katie - we’re both so grateful -“

As Keith reached out to shake her hand, a memory, a bad one, seared through his mind.

_You ungrateful little brat._

A harsh strike across his face, hard enough to make make his head spin.

_Don’t you dare talk back to me like that._

He’d lost his balance, staggered back a step, raised a hand up to shield his head from another incoming strike.

Another swift blow across the face, a snarl of rage that he’d dared to raise a hand against -

Colleen Holt was still holding his hand in both of her own, still talking, and Keith forced himself to focus on the noise and light and movement going on around him.

He wasn’t stuck in the past.

He wasn’t a scared little kid anymore.

At his side, Pidge was literally hopping up and down in delight.

“I’m so glad you’ve finally been able to meet each other,” she smiled.

Keith managed a shaky, but genuine smile.

“Me too,” he said, and he meant it.


	5. Fairy Tales/Fantasy

“Pidge, what do I roll again?”

Pidge leaned over, scanning Keith’s character sheet.

“Um, let’s see, Matt said...that would be...a stealth check.”

Keith blinked at her.

“Yeah, I get that, but...”

He gestured to the tabletop in front of him. Dice of all shapes and sizes stared back up at him.

“ _What_ do I _roll_?”

Pidge chuckled as she handed him the correct dice.

“No worries,” she said. “It takes some getting used to.”

From where he sat at the head of the table, Matthew Holt steepled his fingers together, grinning.

“So true,” he said, nodding. “Before I got into that RPG podcast, I didn’t even know there was anything other than a six-sided dice.”

Hunk looked up, slightly confused. “Wait, there’s more than one kind of dice?”

Lance elbowed his friend in the side. When Hunk looked over at him, Lance spread his own hands wide, indicating all of the different dice spread out in front of the entire adventuring party.

“Dude!” He exclaimed. “There are _so_ many kinds!”

Shiro nodded, his eyes never leaving the battle map spread out on the table before them. As usual, he was concentrating on where to move his character next, and what action to take.

Matt looked over at Keith again.

“So, Keith, what did you get?”

Keith blinked once more, then looked down at the dice he still held in his hand.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. As he spoke, he cast the dice, and Pidge could have sworn he smiled.

“It's my turn to roll.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I throughly enjoy listening to the Critical Role podcast. Check out their theme song - it's what I reference in the last line here ;D


	6. Road Trip

Pidge slouched against the window seat, looking out at the bleak landscape.

“Remind me again why we decided to take a road trip through the desert?”

Keith grunted.

“I... _lived..._ here?”

Pidge pressed her nose up against the glass.

“Dude, I _know_."

She raised her head and looked back up at him, frowning.

“Did you...you know, like it?”

Keith shrugged, concentrating on driving.

“I mean, at times. Mostly at night. I could see the stars for miles.”

Pidge smiled at the thought. “Okay, that I am looking forward to.”

Keith nodded. “Oh, and the rattlesnakes weren’t out.”

Pidge sat up, eyes going round with concern behind her sunglasses.

“Say _what_ now?”


	7. Taking the Hit for the Other/Injury Aftercare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I could possibly pick just one of these two prompts ;-)

“Pidge, look out!”

Allura’s cry caused Pidge to turn around, just in time to see the gleaming tip of the arrow heading directly for her.

Distantly, she wondered where the term ‘bulls-eye’ had come from.

_Hadn’t human archers once showed off their skills by trying to shoot an arrow through the empty eye socket of a bull’s skull?_

_Did this planet’s alien species have something like that?_

_Either way, she was about to find out._

All those thoughts flew through her mind in a single heartbeat.

Purple light flared in the corner of her vision.

Then someone tackled her to the ground, and the world became a blur of blue sky and pale green grass as both of them crashed onto the ground, the force of the impact sending them rolling in opposite directions.

* * *

_Three heartbeats earlier_

At Allura’s shout, adrenaline surged through Keith’s veins. He turned just in time to see the arrow fly through the air.

_Pidge -_

He surged forwards, all too aware that there was no way he could make it to her side in time to stop what was going to happen.

_Not unless -_

Between one step and the next, Keith vanished, only to reappear that same instant at Pidge’s side.

He slammed into her in a full-on tackle, intent on getting her out of harm’s way.

The realization that he had some kind of inborn Druid powers would have to wait until she was safe.

* * *

Once the world stopped spinning, Pidge turned her head just in time to see a blue arc of sniper fire take out the enemy archer.

Lance was shouting something over the comms, but Pidge couldn't make it out.

She sat up slowly, blinking against the sunlight.

It was only then that she saw Keith. He lay on his back a few feet away from her, and he was -

_Oh, God._

* * *

Pidge's voice, somewhere nearby.

“Keith! Keith, you’ve - you’ve got to stay still -“

One of Keith’s eyes flickered open, met her gaze. Her face was upside down. She must be leaning over him. Both of her hands held one of his.

Keith tried to say something to reassure her, but an awful, wrenching agonystabbed into him, and all he could manage was a harsh, breathless cry of pain. He reached out with his free hand, trying to push whatever was hurting him away, but there was nothing there.

He tried, again, and this time, his fingers grazed against something that felt like....feathers?

Even that slight touch caused the agony to triple in intensity. Keith froze into place, unable to do so much as breathe.

Pidge was still talking to him. There were tears in her eyes.

“Shiro’s on his way, we’ll get you to a - pod and - and -“

* * *

Keith didn’t seem to comprehend her words.He just stared into the far distance, like he did when he woke up from a really bad dream, unresponsive and frozen in place.

She kept talking, hoping that some of it might make it through to him, right up until Keith’s face slowly twisted in a wordless, breathless sob of agony.

“-h-hurts,” he whispered. He reached up again with his free hand, slowly closing his fingers around the arrow.

When he shuddered, at first, Pidge thought it was from shock.

Then she realized he was trying to pull the arrow out.

Pidge cried out in alarm, reaching out with one hand and clutching onto his right wrist to keep him from hurting himself any further.

* * *

Pain made everything too close and too loud.

But Pidge - Pidge was his friend.Maybe she..could help...

Keith forced himself to open his eyes, just long enough to beg her to help him pull the arrow out of his chest.

“-pl-ease - I can’t - can’t - do it - alone - please - _please_ -”

When she shook her head, Keith couldn’t understand.

“-‘se - Pidge - please - it _hurts_ -“

It was hurting him.

Why wouldn’t she help it stop hurting?

Keith couldn’t understand.

Did she _want_ him to hurt?

An old, old fear crashed over him, threatening to drown him in past memories.

* * *

Had he done something wrong?

Was she punishing him for being part of the race that had taken away her father and brother?

He wanted to cry, but if he did...she would see it as a weakness.

She wouldn’t want someone weak as a friend.

No one would.

* * *

“....Pidge...p... _please_...“

Pidge was silent now, but she still wouldn’t take the arrow away.

Keith tried to twist his wrist free of her grip, to just get the worst of the pain over with and yank the arrow out of his chest by himself, but Pidge figured out what he was doing, and she pried his fingers away from the arrow, pinning his wrist to the ground just above his shoulder.

Keith tried to free his wrists, but her grip did not weaken. When he looked back up at her, her hair had fallen over her face. He could no longer see her eyes.

In that moment, Keith wished the arrow had struck his heart. It would have hurt less then this. 

Defeated, he closed his eyes, turned his head away, and hid his face from her as best he could.

Pidge swallowed back her own tears and kept a firm grip on his wrists as his lower lip began to tremble.

It was only after that that he began to cry.


	8. Chapter 8

Keith hates himself for crying in front of Pidge, but there's a limit to every pain threshold. 

She's telling him something, but he doesn't want to listen to her. 

He just wishes he were _away_ from here, away from the horrible, crushing pain in his chest.

Without warning, something whiplike snaps across the clearing and twists itself around Keith’s left ankle. He has just enough time to notice how the edges of the whip bite through his armor and _into_ _his skin_ before the whip-bearer pulls him away from Pidge, dragging Keith a few feet across the rough ground, towards where the enemy had taken cover.

The harsh, jerking movement tears a scream from Keith before he realizes that Pidge is still holding onto his left wrist with one hand, and onto her bayard with the other. The green cord is wrapped around one of the ruined stone pillars of the ancient temple, anchoring the two of them in place.

"...'dge..?" He croaks. "...what...'re..."

Another vicious pull on the whip almost yanks him away from her, but she grinds her teeth and refuses to let go.

"Fuck off, asshole," she snarls towards the other end of the clearing. Her short hair is tousled, but it doesn't hide the fire in her eyes. "You're aren't getting him. Not again."

Something eerie chuckles in the shadows across the way.

_Is that a fact?_

Even as the words are spoken, sudden pain courses through Keith's entire body. An electrical charge, just like the one Pidge had said she used on Haxus.

Just once, Keith wishes they could fight stupid enemies.

He _feels_ it when the current hits Pidge. She yelps in pain, and her fingers involuntarily tighten their grip on Keith's wrist - right up until the current is turned off. Then both she and Keith collapse to the ground, unable to move. The enemy uses those precious few seconds to its advantage.

* * *

Keith is dragged several more meters away by the time the other Paladins rush into the clearing, 

* * *

As claws dig into his shoulders and haul him into a sitting position, Keith's vision turns white. The very act of inhaling is torture. The harsh, unpredictable movements of the last few minutes haven't helped his chest injury in any way. If anything, he's worse off than he was when he actually got shot with the arrow in the first place.

If it wasn't so difficult to push air out of his lungs, Keith might have started to laugh.

Oh, _God_ , this is so, _so_ bad.

Whoever this is stays behind Keith, using him as a human shield. Keith tries to twist away from whoever is holding him hostage, but his captor puts a stop to that by yanking on Keith's hair, forcing his chin up and to one side, exposing his neck. Cold steel bites into his throat, and a snarling voice spits out sounds that Keith can only barely comprehend as words.

_'Kill me and he dies, too.'_

A shout of anger.

_...Hunk...?_

Keith’s heart aches, but he tries his best not to flinch at the sound. He understands why Hunk is angry.

_All Keith does is screw up._

Someone else speaks up, in a calm, collected voice. It's Allura...demanding...that Keith be released...

Keith doesn't understand why the team would want him back.

Why should they? His own parents didn't want him. His own mother left before he could stand, and his father -

The blade across his neck shifts, just barely, but the flare of pain is awful. Keith cries out before he can stop himself, and he hates himself for it.

* * *

Somewhere across the clearing, a purple light flares into life, as if a Galra-made prothestic arm is being readied for battle.

_Shiro._

Keith wishes he could call out to his friends, but he can't bring himself to do it. He doesn't want to hurt again.

From what little he can still hear (he can't make out many of the details) it seems as if his team has managed to drag Pidge back to the safety of the group. He's glad she's safe, even though his chest still _aches_ and _hurts_ and -

* * *

The clawed fingers forces the arrow a few millimeters deeper into Keith’s chest. 

_'I fear you are not taking my threats seriously.'_

A spasm of agony causes Keith’s back to arch involuntarily. He isn't certain if he screams. For one thing, he doesn't have the air. For another, the white-hot agony searing through him causes his awareness to fade in and out without rhythm or warning. It's as if his brain is trying to get its signals through, but his body either refuses to connect the dots, or it literally cannot keep up with all of the painful stimulus he's being subjected to. 

As it is, all Keith can see or hear comes in brief flashes of awareness before the pain steals his senses away, over and over again.

* * *

_There. Now that I have your attention, perhaps we can come to an arrangement._

Coran, making as if to steps forwards, hands outstretched in a peaceable manner. 

'There's no need to prolong this unpl-"

The Red Paladin's captor merely chuckles and flicks the end of the arrow shaft sticking out of Keith's chest with one finger.

* * *

Keith hadn't thought that the pain could get worse.

He was wrong.

* * *

Allura forces herself to remain still. At her side, Shiro's eyes are unnervingly flat and expressionless.

She can tell he's calculating just how to kill this being who is torturing their friend in front of them.

If she has any say in the matter (and she will, by Altea, because they are a team, after all) the execution will be quick, definite, and permanent. Perhaps some would later call it overkill, but they would be wrong.

* * *

_If you come any closer, Counselor, I assure you, your friend will not survive._

Even as it speaks, Keith's captor taps the arrow once again, and once more, the Red Paladin's already too-pale face goes ashen, but he doesn't make any sound. 

Somehow, it's so much worse than a scream of pain would have been.

* * *

As the arrow continues to tremble, Keith wishes he could teleport out of this situation, but he doesn't even know how he did it in the first place.

No.

No, that's not quite true.

It was to save Pidge.

It was that simple.

His friend had been in danger, and he...he had known he had to do _something_ , even if it meant he paid a price for it.

Even though the pain is growing worse and worse by the second, Keith doesn't regret getting in the way.

Keith manages to glance out of the corner of his eye, and, across the clearing, he can see that Lance is holding onto Pidge's arm, but whether for support or comfort, Keith can't tell. They're both crying.

He wishes he could tell them it's okay, but it hurts too much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the cliff-hanger ending, but I've realized that sometimes, I let my fear of 'needing' something to be 'perfect' gets in the way of me doing it at all, so, here it is: the 'yep I think this is good as it is, and that is good enough!' chapter. <3
> 
> As always, please assume that Keith is rescued, the villain disintegrated/permanently inconvenienced, and much platonic love and aftercare occurs on the Castle. :-)

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos ALWAYS make my day! :-) <3 <3 <3 <3


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